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SUBJ/SECNAV VECTOR 18//
RMKS/1. One of my early heroes growing up in Cleveland, Ohio was Bob Feller.
Feller was an all-time great pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. Even though
his last game in the major leagues happened four years before I was born, his
career had sustained its legendary status among Cleveland Indians fans, and
across the broad spectrum of baseball aficionados, throughout my entire
childhood and beyond. Feller was a baseball prodigy, a young right handed
pitcher with a devastating, unhittable fastball. He was signed by Cleveland
out of the small town of Van Meter, Iowa in 1936 at the age of 17, and in his
pitching debut with the Indians he struck out 15 batters. Over the next
several years he became one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. Then
came December 7, 1941.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on that "day of infamy" changed the
trajectory of Feller's life and baseball career, as it did for our entire
nation. Two days after Pearl Harbor, Feller left the Indians, and joined OUR
team, the United States Navy. He served with honor for the next 3+ years,
passing up the prime years of his baseball career in service to our Navy and
our nation. He left the Navy in 1945 as a highly decorated Chief Petty
Officer and returned to the Indians where he went on to win the World Series
in 1948, and then played in another one in 1954.
When asked whether he had any second thoughts about putting off his baseball
career to join the Navy fight in World War II Bob Feller was
characteristically blunt and honest:
"A lot of folks say that had I not missed those almost 4 seasons to World War
II during what was probably my physical prime I might have had 370 or even
400 wins. But I have no regrets. None at all. I did what any American
could and should do: serve his country in its time of need. The world's
time of need."
In the midst of this global pandemic, both uniformed Americans and civilians
alike find themselves confined to quarters, sheltering in place as the virus
blooms through our cities and towns. Many of you in the Navy and Marine
Corps team continue to safely navigate the contagion, operating at the
forward edge of freedom in the air and on or below the sea, throughout the
world. As Americans, we are all being asked, as Bob Feller said and did, "to
serve our country in its time of need" in ways that may not comport to the
plans we had envisioned for our lives and careers. But, serve we must.
In this crisis, America is recognizing what you do for the nation. It was
hard to miss the great pride, and relief, of New Yorkers and Los Angelinos
when the USNS COMFORT and USNS MERCY entered their harbors, pulled into piers
alongside those renowned cities, and began to render aid this week. It is
telling that within 24 hours of the call going out for reservists to staff
the COMFORT and MERCY, we received over 200 requests to volunteer. The
ability to rapidly provide support to these missions is not only a testament
to the continual training and mobilization readiness efforts of the Navy
Reserve, but also the motivated responses from citizen-Sailors from around
the country.
Most of the time, our sea services are out of sight and unknown to many of
our fellow citizens. Not today. National security imperatives like freedom
of navigation of the seas, geopolitical balancing from international waters,
and defensive depth provided by a long grey line of American sovereign ships,
deployed thousands of miles forward from our shores are not often top of
mind. Today, however, your presence is comforting the nation and you can be
proud.
Although the MERCY and COMFORT are the most visible signs of our Navy and
Marine Corps team responding to this crisis, there is so much more that we
are actually doing to harness our agility and commitment to our fellow
citizens throughout this country. What we are demonstrating is that our team
is much broader than the people we see on active duty. We are a part of an
expansive "naval service ecosystem" consisting of active duty Sailors and
Marines, reservists, Department of Defense civilians, contractors,
shipbuilders, aircraft manufacturers, suppliers, and more.
Here is just a short list of some of things this ecosystem is contributing
today in this struggle against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19):
a. We are deploying Expeditionary Medical Facilities (EMFs), which are
mobile hospitals designed for austere and challenging environments. They
have full resuscitation and emergency stabilizing surgery capabilities, as
well as selected specialty care providers, with over 400 Selected Reserve
Sailors ready to deploy in addition to active-duty personnel in total, more
than 550 highly qualified medical professionals in each EMF. This week we
split one of these EMFs into two teams and sent one half to Dallas and the
other to New Orleans.
b. Marine Corps Systems Command and Naval Information Warfare Center
Pacific teamed to assist the University of California San Diego Medical
Center with designing parts for 3D printing capabilities which enable the
simultaneous ventilation of multiple patients.
c. Commander, Naval Air Force Reserve squadrons and aviators have worked
around the clock, helping transport personnel and equipment across the globe.
The Navy Air Logistics Office has been pivotal in the prioritization of
thousands of missions. For example, they have transported critical test kits
from San Diego to Guam in support of COVID-19 response efforts, and moved
graduates from Recruit Training Command Great Lakes to their follow-on
assignments in the fleet.
d. The Naval Medical Research Center has hundreds of medical
professionals deployed worldwide, conducting COVID-19 diagnostic and
surveillance testing.
e. Navy Facilities Engineering Command is working with the Army Corps of
Engineers to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency/Health and Human
Services. This includes assessing facilities and developing standardized
design concepts for conversion of hotels, arenas, and barracks to hospitals.
f. Our Naval University System is providing assistance to broader
national emergency effort, from donating laptops to local agencies, to
providing scientific research assistance in the Additive Manufacturing of
needed masks and other personal protective equipment.
g. The Department of the Navy scientists at the Naval Research
Laboratory are providing vital technical support in several areas, including
fluid mechanics and biotechnology.
h. The Defense Industrial Base, besides continuing to support our Navy
and Marine Corps team and our larger national critical infrastructure, has
also been active in supporting the national response to COVID-19. They have
been donating N95 masks and other personal protective equipment, using their
3D printing capabilities to manufacture additional equipment such as face
shields, working closely with local businesses to support them where
possible, and sharing best practices for the health and safety of the
workforce during the crisis.
These vignettes tell a larger, more strategic story of who we are as a
people. I am confident that we shall look back at these moments as searing
in their challenge and full of mourning in our loss, but also we will recall
another age in our history when we once again came together for common
purpose. Our opportunity to show America what we as a naval service can do
for our fellow citizens in need could hardly be clearer. It is up to us to
seize it.
My childhood hero, Bob Feller, was born in the thick of the 1918 flu
pandemic, and was raised during the polio epidemic that ultimately paralyzed
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, so he lived through something similar to
what we are all going through today in the midst of a global pandemic. I am
certain he would have recognized that the same level of courage,
extraordinary action, and sacrifice will be required by each of us to
persevere through this crisis. After the war, life continued for Feller. He
had his triumphs, albeit on a very different path than he imagined. So will
each of us. How we respond today, however, may be the one thing we treasure
the most about our individual journeys, and the legacy we leave for our
country.
Go Navy and Marine Corps! Never, ever give up the ship! And once again, and
forever more, Beat Army!
2. SECNAV Vectors are released each Friday to the entire DON. Previous
Vectors can be viewed https://navylive.dodlive.mil/2020/01/02/secnav-
vectors/.
3. Released by the Honorable Thomas B. Modly, Acting Secretary of the
Navy.//
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